Estonia is ex-Soviet Russia country, though many citizens of Estonia call this period "occupation". They are called the most successful ex-USSR country. There are even rumors that it would be first ex-Soviet country to participate in USA visa weaver program (that's when the people don't need visa to travel to USA).

So let's see how live people that would soon needn't visa to visit USA live now.

Wow, Russians are still not getting tired of the Nazi rhetoric. Incredible how the leaders of a huge country be so immature and childish as to wage a name-calling propaganda war against small countries AND the residents of this country be so ignorant as to gulp up this outlandish propaganda and actually post comments like the one above. How can a large nation just writhe in this all-encompassing inferiority complex? Yes, we got rid of your occupation. Yes, we voted for independence. Yes, we joined the EU and NATO, because we wish to be a part of the civilized world, not Neo-USSR. We have progressive, democratric countries with booming economies; and Russians just can’t get over this empire mentality, instead resorting to delirious yelling (nazis, SS, oppressors, little turds who shall be crushed by the Motherland, etc …) and drinking themselves to death. You’ve got to get a grip of reality, guys, because your country is halfway down the drain, and bombing the Estonian embassy with condoms filled with brown paint isn’t going to improve the situation.

Regarding the pictures, I don’t even see any indication that they’re from Estonia, it could be an abandoned building in Yakutsk for all I know.

There is no any propaganda. It is your small yaffing country that provokes all those public sentiments against you. Trying to pique Russia all the time by closing Russian schools, forbidding to speak Russian, giving fewer privileges to Russians living in your country, demolishing monuments to fallen Soviet soldiers and at the same time worshipping nazi ones – that’s what you are good at. Pure nationalistic country with a corresponding parliament full of nationalists. Have you ever read fables by a famous Russian fabulist Krylov? He has a fable called “Mos’ka and Elephant”. In this fable Mos’ka (a small mongrel doggy) starts barking with at a huge elephant on seeing him. Your country is just like Mos’ka. And you still can’t stop barking at Russia trying to create an image of a put-upon offended country along with other Baltic states.

Well, thanks for proving my point. You just parrot the same old propaganda lies. Perhaps try visiting one of those countries some day. If you choose to be brainwashed by your corrupt government, it’s sad, but it’s your choice.

i like in estonia because i can be here without any citizenship, but i can vote in local elections. No duties nothing even not military service no one wants me. I like here i can travel in europe, it is like paradise for russians thats why i dont want come back there. And not only me most of russians here likes to live in estonia.
Of course officially we dont like , even i say i dont like here but who cares.

Not anymore – IT specs from Baltic’s are too expensive, now it’s Belarus/Ukraine/Russia time for cheap manpower.

What’s wrong with you Russians, why are you so afraid to admit that Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania where occupied? Russia is great country, few thousands square km’s from its territory as small compensation will not ruin the great imperia… :D. And if Russians are so enslaved in Estonia why they just go back to their motherland? Or maybe it’s better to live in those ‘nazi’ countries, get money from both RU and EE/LV/LT governments as many ex-soviet military liberators (occupants) and their families does? And to be honest – where are all those oppressed Russians, do you know one? I don’t. All I hear are stories coming from Russia just to keep anti Baltic’s propaganda alive. Sure, it’s always easier to blame someone else to keep people dreaming and keep them away from country’s internal problems.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Baltic states were occupied by Soviet Union in a military annexation and every civilized country respects that as a basic fact of history. Soviet Union installing a puppet government which signs a piece of paper does not comprise “mutual decision of governments at both sides”

You make it sound like mythical SU troops came from another planet and occupied Russia.

While, in fact, at least 99% of those who built up SU were from within Russia…

What SU regimes did in the past was both illegal and amoral and it sickens me when someone tries to justify that. Russians should be the first to condemn the regime, for they have suffered the most, unfortunately, what I see in forums, is overwhelming masochism and tender nostalgia, and I don’t undestand why.

“You make it sound like mythical SU troops came from another planet and occupied Russia.

While, in fact, at least 99% of those who built up SU were from within Russia…”

In bolshevik government (and communist party itself) in 1918-1924 there were only three ethnical russians: Lenin, Chicherin and Lunacharsky. All other members were mostly jews and latvian with few number of Georgians. That situation continued until 1937, when during Great Purge Stalin destroyed many old bolsheviks and Russians got majority in communist party in accordance with demographic situation in state. Main military power behind early bolshevik military was infamous Red Latvian riflemen. There is common opinion about that in world historiography, so if you are interested you can find more information about it.

“Oh, and how come modern Russia pays SU’s debts then?”
Russian had no choice. Read further about Gorbachev and Yelcin confrontation in late SU and how modern Russia shaped.

What’s the difference whether Lenin (who was a Tatar btw, not Russian), or the others were Jews, Latvians, Georgians, younameit? We’re not discussing nationalities here. Although it is disputable that the whole commie affair was a masterful plan by German spies to bring Russia out of WW1, all the revolutionaries have their roots in Russian Empire which has been very multiethnic for a very long time.

Please distinguish Russians as an ethnic group and Russians as simplified version of “inhabitants of Russia”.

The Soviet government wouldn’t have lasted long without the Red Army. And to my knowledge, there were very few foreigners (i.e. from outside Russia) there. As I said, no alien troops from another planet occupied Russia. All came from within.

I know plenty about Gorbachev vs Yeltsin conflict, however, my information comes from here. Quote: Russia is considered the Soviet Union’s successor state in diplomatic matters (see Russia’s membership in the United Nations) and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Prove me/wiki wrong

would it make you feel better, if Lenin, Stalin and others were all ethnic Russians and still kill millions of innocent people?

why do you take stance as someone would be attacking Russians on an ethnical basis?

does the Yeltsin-Gorbachev conflict “undo” the fact that Russia is a successor to SU, or not?

if Russia was occupied by SU (which is kind of absurd, being occupied by itself), then it should be fairly easy for you to condemn its crimes, for there have been quite serious one, comparable or even worse than nazi Germany? it’s SU that’s being condemned, not you, so what’s the problem?

and speaking of Latvian riflemen, if you take a short glance into the history, they were part of Russian army. There was no de-jure Latvia in 1917 you know, Latvia was part of Russian Empire, so the riflemen falls into “own guys” category. check either encyclopedia or wikipedia if you don’t believe me.

in English it’s complicated to express what people mean by “Russian”, there is just one term.

I still don’t understand why are you so protective about SU. You possibly cannot deny it stirred a huge amount of s**t into existence, ruined many millions’ peoples lives? Even if you can prove “legitimity” of Baltic States entering SU (which I highly doubt), the deed does not make it morally right, does it?

It must be a coincidence then that Russia declared itself a de jure successor to USSR?

I don’t understand the logic, modern Russia is a successor to USSR, and USSR had a quite cruel totalitarian regime (which was hidden from the regular citizens in the latter period), yet so many Russians are soooo protective about it? What’s the matter?

Russian is successor of USSR the same way as Italy is successor of Roman Empire. Legally we had to do this, but reality is different.
I am not protective of Soviet Union. It was grim totalitarian state as you said, which brought many horrors to Russian people. But at same time it does not allow us to distort historical facts. And fact is there were no occupations of Baltic states as they join Soviet Union willfully.

Yes, of course…
And Ukraina willfully let 8’000’000 of the citizens die of hunger.
And when Hungary in 1956 wanted to gain independence from friendly Soviet Union you sent tanks there and killed thousand of people. Of course Hungary willfully called for Soviet help.
And Czchoslovakia in 1968 also called willfully for Soviet/Warsaw Pact help…

Sure…

I just can’t understand why you can’t deal with your history… Look and Germans – they don’t have such problems as you… They can admit that they done wrong. I can’t understand why you can’t?

1) Pretty much *every* nation, which should have been assimilated into Soviet people (speaking in Russian), or wiped out. The whole key idea was to eliminate nations, and eradicate everyone who was above “very poor”. this should have been covered even by Russian history lessons at schools.

2) Not the world maybe. Just the European part possibly. For more on this theory, read Suvorov’s Ledokol, btw there are movies on this streamable on video.google.com. There are too many arguments to list here, see for yourself.

What’s with the phallic metaphores all the time? Why are you crazy Russian nationalists so obsessed with male genitalia? Latent homosexualism?

Soviet Union would be just a bad period of history for me and my “countrymen” by now, if not for Russia which is currently transforming into Neo-USSR. It’s you and other nationalists (and the Russian government) who weep for the bygone times of the empire and get furious if anyone tries to discredit the actions of Soviet Union.

This is just some building on the outskirts or a building ready for demolition. I am russian and could care less about Estonia, I wish you the best of luck. Its just our russian culture, check that, are inherited soviet past culture that just seems not to fade, Estonians good luck. Zhievy CCCP./jk

I spent time in Latvia (immediately south of Estonia), and I went into some of the worst conditions I had ever seen and it looked nothing like this. Estonia is more advanced than Latvia so I am going to have to call BS on these pictures. The building looks right, most look like that because they were soviet built, but the inside is just one rare extreme example of what can happen if a water pipe bursts in the middle of the winter. Trust me the Baltic states have come a long way and while America should not be eager to open its doors and let all of Estonia flood in, it isn’t a horrible place to live.

It’s a bit late to comment on this now, but I saw the clip where these pictures are from on TV. It’s actually not an abandoned building, it’s a building where the people have not paid for heating for some years already and now I guess the pipes burst with the -20 degree colds we had and covered the house in ice. The average debts of the people in the house were a few thousand euros for heating and other utilities.

The house itself is located in Paldiski, which is a town 50km out of Tallinn. It’s in quite a bad shape, because most of the townspeople were from Soviet military base in the town and after they left, much of the town was abandoned and fell into disrepair. It’s quite a poor area over there.

But the nature is nice around the town, nice coastal cliffs. I went hiking there last summer

We´ll just have to wait and see what else Russian propaganda organs improvise about Estonia. Knowing that 9th of May is coming and statue of the unknown soldier will be moved to a cemetary it is probable for Russian “news agency´s” to come out with some shocking “news” cough*lies*.
The nazi card is always used when Russian politics run out off argumented thoughts. Who cares if Russians themselves demolish their own monuments for WW2 veterans to build new roads and make room for new appartment buildings. Garry Kasparov was one who lead attention to this embarassing fact.
For majority of Russian people the three Baltic states will always be traitors, naughty nazi loving countries who dared to depart from this “voluntary” and “best country in the world” USSR” and of course no “occupation” whatsoever. All these tens of million people sent to Siberia was just a lie just like neo-nazis deny Holocaust.
Those Soviet truebelievers who rant on this site all the time, go ahead, post whatever comes to your mind. But think for a moment, by preffering one criminal regime (USSR) to other (Nazi-Germany) you are no different from them.

You should understand, that making business with Estonia or buying anything produced in Estonia or visiting Estonia as a tourist, you actually support and finance a new generation of European Nazis. Please, spend a couple of minutes to read the letter to the end, because your voice of a free human is very important in preventing the revival of Fascism in the Europe.

Estonia, which has recently joined to EU and NATO, officially practices Apartheid policies and does its best to rehabilitate and legalize Fascism, for years. EU, US and other democracies preferred not to pay attention on that till now. However, it doesn’t cancel the fact that Estonia carries out a policy of Ethnic Discrimination against ethnic Russians, who constitute a third part of its population. Most of these people were born in this country or live here for 30-40 years, but they were not even provided citizenship and are treated as second class people. Moreover, Estonia officially glorifies legionaries of Hitler’s SS troops that exterminated Jews in Fascist death camps in Estonia during the Holocaust. Government sets up monuments to these Fascist butchers. They are allowed to march in the downtown of the capital, Tallinn. They are invited to official events; the Estonian President shakes their bloody hands, and calls them heroes of Estonia.

At the same time, Estonian government aggressively fights with any memories of millions of the Soviet soldiers, who paid with their lives to free Europe from the plague of the Fascism and to save dozens millions of Europeans of the death. And democratic countries – first of all EU and US, prefer to dissemble this again. But recently Estonian regime overstepped the limits, which makes it absolutely illegal from the point of view of common human values. On April 26, Estonian authorities have decided to finally erase the memory of the victory of Russian soldiers over the Hitler’s Nazism by destroying the main World War II memorial to a Soviet warrior-rescuer, Bronze Soldier. For those Russians who live in Estonia, demolition of the memorial is not just a removal of some architectonic construction. This is the most painful insult of the memories of their fathers and grandfathers, who died in battle with the Fascism to bring freedom to the Europe.

Thousands of offended Estonian Russians came to a peaceful protest demonstration, demanding from Estonian officials to stop the vandalism. But instead dialogue Estonian authorities sent special police forces to suppress the protest. With no reason they started to fire in the protesters rubber bullets, water cannon and tear-gas, throw flash-bang grenades, and baton women and teenagers. During the massacre the first ethnic Russian was killed, dozens were injured and hundreds were arrested just because of their Russian ethnicity. Those arrested were thrown into in a harbor warehouse as they were livestock, and there they were beat by police within an inch of their life. Just think – in the heart of the Europe an Apartheid regime kills, injures and arrests hundreds people just because of their ethnicity! However, almost all of the European and American media keep hypocritical silence or even worse call this “pacifying gangs of drung vandals”.

This is disgrace! This is shame not only on those European and US governments that support this Nazi state. This is shame on every European and American who keeps silence today. Keeps silence, because somewhere inside he or she is confident that rehabilitation of Fascism, and Apartheid crimes committed against those “dirty Russian” at the heart of the European Union, provide “useful lesson” to Russians and Russia. But maybe you think that this is not your business? Then let me remind you a famous phrase by German priest Martin Niemoller he said about Nazis in 1945: “First they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew…. Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left who can speak up for me”. Today, new European Nazis came for the Russians, and the Europeans keep silence or, better to say, silently approve. Well, you can be sure – this is just the beginning, and some day yours home-grown Nazis, inspired by your silence of the crimes of the Estonian Fascism, will come for you. And there will be no one to speak up for you. Because Russians, once rescued the Europe from the Fascism, will never pay again with millions of their lives for those not speaking up today.

So what can you do? Not too much. But quite enough to stop Nazis. At least don’t finance them. Don’t buy anything produced from Estonia. Don’t do any kind of business with Estonian companies and organizations. Don’t invest in Estonian stocks. Don’t fly to Estonia as a tourist. What else? Maybe, to ask your representative in the House of Representatives, why your government spends your taxes to support Estonian Nazis? Or to forward this letter to your local newspaper and ask them, why they never write about Apartheid in Estonia? Or to call to Estonian embassy in your country, and ask them what is that they think they are doing? Or at least forward this letter to a few friends and colleagues? Your voice CAN prevent revival of Nazism, if you want it

Ok, time has passed and Estonia is part of USA visa waiver program! Also, Russians and Estonians have never been friends! Just neighbors by geography! However, Germans,Swedes,Finns and now Americans are totally another story! They are friends! Problem with Russia is that it don’t honor Estonian independency and keeps wanting to occupy it!
What comes to this apartment. It shows that it belongs to Russian who lives in east part of Estonia. 90% of people in this particular area are Russians and this part of Estonia is very poor and criminal, like a ghetto!

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